Journal Entry on Racism

Copied over from Facebook.
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Feb 24, 2019, 11:43 AM
(commenting in an already long thread)

We can celebrate the expressiveness and adaptability of the human genome without buying in to the specific taxonomy of races invented mostly by white supremacist social Darwinists with an agenda to justify imperialism and/or slavery.

The racists use animal husbandry for their concepts, wanting to identify humans as either "pure specimens" of this or that breed (race), or "mongrels" (hybrids, mixed race). We could go much further in this direction if we wanted, with "Best in Show" specimens of whatever pure breeds the authorities decided to enshrine, perhaps inventing new races as time goes on.

In the meantime, racists forge ahead without any universally agreed upon taxonomy. It all keeps changing, and "race" gets hopelessly confused with "ethnicity" which is different. It's not that I don't see genetic differences (and/or ethnic ones), I just have little respect for the pseudo-anthropology that pretends to see a clear and clean taxonomy. A lot of academic white guys with snobby attitudes want to tell me, another white guy, what the races are. Are there five or seven? What are they again?

Their answers always sound stupid to me, from pretentiously pseudo-educated college and university types with a cave man's understanding of the world. I can't credit racists with any kind of intellectual integrity. They're a morally bankrupt camp and yes a lot of them have white skin and academic degrees. I consider racists inferior, intellectually, in so many ways. To believe in races is an ethnic trait. Not everyone suffers from that specific meme virus.

Following up;
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Feb 26, 2019, 6:54 PM

The original "I don't see race" post implies it's only whites who deny race, which is telling if true. I'm going to remain on the lookout for prominent thinkers of a variety of skin colors, eye shapes and so on, who think we might need to revise our thinking in this area.

If it's really true that only white-skinned people, palefaces, think the racial schema / taxonomy is a crazy-bad way to approach the reality of genetic differences (let alone cultural differences) I'd be surprised. But it's an empirical question. I should investigate more.

My thanks to the original poster for starting this useful thread. I hope we keep revisiting racism for as long as it takes. Ashley Montagu considered it our most dangerous myth. We should not let up and just accept it unquestioned.